Cell Phone Manner

It always amazes me how good cell phone manners are in Japan. Almost all the people there obey the rule and try very hard not to annoy the other people around.

In U.S., it is nothing like that. Often we are forced to listen to other peoples’ conversation in public places like airport, train, and waiting room at doctor’s office. Alas, however, this is the “land of free”, common sense doesn’t play much of a role and rules cannot be enforced unless they become law. So even if vast majority around the annoying cell phone talkers might have been irritated, I’ve never seen anybody say anything to those people.

We have a neighbor dude whose voice is naturally loud and annoying, and it gets louder on the phone. He has a bad habit of taking his cell phone out to the small yard, which is right up against other neighbors’, and makes a dreading long conversation. Hey kido, we have no interest in your personal life, so keep it to yourself, talk inside the house and close the window. You probably want us to hear it all, but we really don’t want to.